Horror of the North

Slave

Largot was scared. He was tired, and he was angry. He was also very hungry. Eventually, the bandits threw a piece of rock-hard, moldy bread into his cage. He devoured it greedily. One of them laughed.

"Dressed like a Noble, but is he? I aint never seen a Noble's boy eat anything so common."

Largot sat in his little cage for days, eating nothing but old bread and whatever unfortunate creature crawled too close. At a secluded village in the North, untouched by Imperial culture or hygiene, he was sold off into a slave market. He was given a small room inside a house, shared with many other slaves of varying races and backgrounds. Here he passed into his sixth year and in that time he became undisputed leader of all the slave children. The man who owned them laughed.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" The child yelled.

Largot was beaten mercilessly for his insolence. He was still the leader, but now he made sure the other children stayed in line.

Three weeks before his seventh birthday, he was sold to a band of pirates.

He was the only slave they bought. The ship's soothsayer and the captain were walking through the street, and the mage, an Argonian, demanded that the captain buy him.

He found himself standing in the captain's cabin, looking straight at the captain and his mage, there was a little girl, about his own age, in the corner.

"Name?" the captain asked.

"Largot." He simply replied. Even at his young age, he knew enough to wait, see what your enemy would reveal about themselves before making a move.

"Parents?"

"Dead." Still simple. The captain showed no concern, only ensuring that he wouldn't get any ransom demands.

"Born free or slave?"

"Free." Largot said, but instantly regretted it. He realized the weak chink only an instant too late. If he had been born a slave, he would have been raised subservient. This way, he would have to be broken.

The whippings were horrible. It wasn't just whippings either. Scare tactics and life-threatening dangers. Crocodiles and a young Minotaur.

"I'll put you through this and worse if ye disobey a word I say." The captain said. "Brig him for the next three nights!"

Largot sat in the brig stoically for three nights. No food or fresh water was given to him. He sat there, hungry and thirsty and furious, but far from broken. He refused to bow down. He would make a show of it, but he would have the bastard's blood for this.

On the fourth dawn, he was brought into a small cabin. It was small, but far better than the slave quarters back in the town or worse, the brig. The little girl from the captain's cabin came in with a tray of warm food.

"I'm sorry they did that to you." She said. Her voice was quiet, but still clear. She seemed the opposite of Largot. She was clearly privileged on the ship, small and fair-haired next to the black-haired, strong, muscular slave boy. Blue eyes were the only thing they shared in appearance.

"I've been through worse torture." Largot said, biting into the meat. "I watched my family get slaughtered but a masked Orc."

"My only family is the cruel devil who bought you. I wish someone would kill him!" She said, her voice and eyes flashing with intensity Largot had only seen in himself. "He killed my Mum when I was little, and took me to stay on the ship with his filth."

"At least you have some freedom. I'm stuck here until someone needs something dangerous done." Largot had been told in no uncertain terms that the worst of jobs would be his to do. "But I guess you have it worse, in a way. No one should ever have to watch their parents kill each other."

Largot was blind to the irony. He had always been treated as a true blood son by his foster-father and knew nothing of his parentage. He didn't know that the masked man who killed his mother had sired him.

For the next few years, Largot did the dangerous work on the ship. Scraping off barnacles and loading ballistae were also on his list of duties. On his fourteenth birthday he was freed and made a permanent crewman on the ship, the Iron Shaft.

But his journey through life was soon to take a drastic turn. He was about to reach manhood.